Last Friday evening, we finally got Mom and Cindy off to Utah. They’re spending a full two weeks there as they pay their respects and bid farewell to Cindy’s father (and Mom’s former husband). Bev and I went with them as far as St. George, where we all had dinner at the local I-Hop before they boarded the shuttle bound for Las Vegas.

They left Las Vegas at 1 AM local time, headed for Houston on the “red-eye”. After a couple hours in Houston, it was off to Columbus where there was a big surprise for them. The one thing we didn’t realize is that they were flying in relatively small aircraft. That meant they got to check their carry-on luggage for free.

We were tracking their progress on the Continental Airlines page when Bev realized they had left Houston 12 minutes early and were going to arrive even earlier in Columbus. Time for a quick call to Lauren, who would be picking up Mom and Cindy. She lives about 10 minutes from the airport.

The big surprise for Cindy was that Shawn (Cindy’s son and Lauren’s fiance) was also on hand to greet them. He lives at Put In Bay and Cindy didn’t expect to see him until later, maybe at the first memorial for her father.

I gotta tell you, it’s sure quiet around here without either Mom or Cindy.

The dogs figured out very quickly that “morning” no longer comes at 5:30 as they are quiet until we’re ready to get up around 7 AM. They also don’t get real demanding about “treats” everytime they come in from a potty or play break.

Cindy offered me her bed while she’s gone. It’s a huge change from the hide-a-bed… bigger, firmer, and much warmer (flannel sheets and a couple of comforters). Oh, and the dogs have ALWAYS consider her bed as “theirs”. The first night, the dogs didn’t even let me get clear into bed before settling in, leaving me less than half the bed, and no room to turn over.

There’s still 8 days left until Cindy and Mom return from their trip to Ohio. By the time they get back, they will have held two memorial services (one on the mainland and one on South Bass Island), visited virtually every relative still in the area, and even returned for an overnight trip to Put In Bay, with dinner at Tipper’s, the main restaurant on the island.

The only thing we still don’t know is how much fish Cindy will bring home. She’s tasked Shawn with catching both walleye and perch to bring home. Word has it, there is none in the freezers at Shawn’s place.

Wednesday night (after we’d all gone to bed) the phone rang. We know around here that a call in the late night or very early morning is never good news. Sure enough, it was Cindy’s brother, Kevin, with the news that their father had passed away.

He’d been quite sick and had been placed in “hospice care” with six months to live about 10 days previous. He’s in a much better place now.

Needless to say, no one got much sleep that night.

We took Thursday off from the “barn demolition clean-up” to take care of as much of the necessary arrangements as possible. As it turns out, Cindy and Mom will fly out Friday night, November 7 and get to Ohio the next morning.

Dad’s being cremated and a couple of services are being planned, one on the “mainland” for Kevin and family, and the other at Put-In-Bay for Mom, Cindy and their friends and family. Iterrment is private.

This past Friday, Cindy and I finished the barn project after borrowing the neighbor’s lowboy trailer. We had better than a dozen 16 foot boards, two gates (doors), and other assorted long lumber, as well a pickup load of absolute junk wood. That’s the little stuff with more nails than we could count.

As if that weren’t enough, our neighbor Jill, has been unable to secure a “winter tenant” to live at/tend to her little farm, so we’re tending the animals (sheep, goats, chickens, dog and cat) while she’s up north during each week. No real problems, other than the sheep keep getting out of their pasture and helping themselves to the hay stack. The goats are nearly dry, so not much milking and the chickens are now free-range. They’re still laying pretty well, so we gather eggs.

The weather has turned very fall-like for a few days with rain Saturday night and fog today. It’s so unusual to have fog on the desert!

Oh, if you’ve had any problems getting to my blogs, especially Four Country Gals, it’s because our web host has been migrating from the data center in Canada to Texas, and those things never go smoothly. We’ve been communicating regularly with tech support as they work to get everything resolved.

After having been “weathered out” over that one weekend, we returned to remove the roof boards, rafters and finally down to the walls. That took three of us (Clyde, Cindy and me) the entire week. Most of the 12 foot or better roof boards were salvaged as were all the rafters (nicely notched), the beams, and the headers. Most of the boards on the walls were in pretty sad shape.

We were able to save several of the studs. Now, all this lumber is the “old stuff” meaning if it’s a 2 x 4, it really is 2 inches by 4 inches as opposed to today’s wood that is 1 1/2 by 3 1/4 for a “2×4″. All the bigger stuff is rough sawn, too.

Once we had the walls off, it was time to go to work on the floor. The top floor was a “lap style” rather than tongue and groove, so once we figured out where to start, it came apart quite nicely. We saved quite a bit of it. The sub-floor was laid diagonnaly and is “yellow pine” of quite poor quality. We saved what we could, but will most likely use it for firewood.

Now, about those railroad ties…

This barn is 12′ x 16′ and the ties are stacked 9 high. We agreed to split the number of ties with Clyde as his payment. Besides he’s the one who was in the cellar taking them apart and lifting them out. I was on the “nail removal” crew, as they were way too heavy for me. Believe me, they had plenty of nails, some very large and others smaller.

Things wouldn’t have been too bad, except for the one morning being about 25 degrees with a 15-20 mph North wind. My nose wanted to run down the street! It was cold and miserable and every time I bent over, the cold took my breath… not to mention my nose wanted to run away.

The second day of tie removal was better… NO WIND. Still cold, if not colder, but no wind.

By Thursday, we had the entire barn apart and some of it ready to come home. We’d been kind of sorting the lumber as we were dismantling. There are piles of “firewood” with nails, clean boards to be saved, studs and rafters to be saved that still have nails, and of course… the railroad ties. All told there were better than 50 8′ ties and maybe 20 or so “shorties”. Those are generally about 4′ long.

When you have to buy railroad ties, they cost at least $15 a piece and more than likely you’ll pay $20-25 each, so those have all been hauled home and safely stored. Friday, we took both the old Ford and the Avalanche, while Clyde and Amber brought their pickup and a trailer. Our original plans had gotten a little fouled up when another neighbor had to make a quick trip to Calilfornia with his 16′ flatbed trailer. We had been promised that trailer, but understand there are emergencies.

This next week we still have to haul the rest of the wood home. I think we’ll bring home wood with nails and work on it here (at our leisure), as well as all the other stuff. Bev wants to get started on the addition to the chicken coop while we still have good weather.

Last Thursday evening we went over to Clyde’s to get the ram we’re using this year. As you may recall, we took Algernon to auction after he got too agressive and dangerous. Too bad, too, as he was a real good-looking guy. His fleece wasn’t quite what I wanted, but he sure sired some nice lambs.

Oh well, we’re saving at least a half a stack of hay by only “borrowing” a ram for breeding. There’s really no use for them beyond one month out of the year.

So begins the saga…

Clyde herded his flock into his little shelter and roped the ram, letting “his girls” go back to pasture. This was when we go our first look at him. Now, he’s supposed to be a Polypay from the neighboring farm where they run a flock of over 2000 ewes.

As the story goes, they just bought this boy.

Once roped, I held the rope (we knew that roll bar would be good for something) while Cindy and Clyde lifted the ram into the pickup. Estimated weight is about 250 lbs, nearly 100 lbs less than “Algernon”. Don’t worry, Clyde and his grandson, Kixx, rode in the back with him as we took off for our farm.

From the looks of him, he’s at least four years old and is more likely a cross of Delaine Merino and Dorset (which are two of the foundation breeds of Polypay). His feet really need trimming, but that’s not on our adjenda. As for his “cojones”, they’re adequate, but nothing to write home about.

A short ride to our place, and we turned him loose.

Now, you normally see a “whole lot of grinning” from the ram when he meets a new flock of ewes. Ours took one look at him and ran away! And, would you believe?… He merely ambled after them? We were out there for nearly 30 minutes watching the girls run, and him follow slowly after them.

Clyde was laughing at us because we insist on using a “breeding harness”. That’s that strap system on the ram with a “marking crayon”. It works like this… When the ram mounts the ewe, the crayon rubs off on her fleece. That way we can get an idea if he’s at least shown enough interest to attempt a breeding. The more (and darker) marks, the more likely a successful breeding.

So far, after a full week, he’s bred two and messed with another one. Bev has given him ’til the end of the month to get his job done. After all, this is a “working farm” and the animals are expected to keep up their end of the bargain.

A couple weeks ago, Bev and Cindy saw a “Free to a good home” sign… it was “you tear it down and you can have all the wood, for free” deal…

So, we’re tearing down a small old barn, complete with a small loafing shed and a full “root cellar” lined with old railroad ties.

We began by asking our neighbor, Clyde, for his expertise. Last thing we want is an accident, like pulling the wrong boards first. He agreed to join us this past week to help get us started.

First, we “rescued” anything that was salvageable inside the barn. That included three old doors, two of which are solid wood and beveled glass 36″ exterior doors. We also found a lot of junk which we loaded onto the pickup for a trip to the dump. We also found 10 dresser drawers which we can use for things like “nest boxes” for the chickens. In the mean time, they’ll be great for storing the old cedar shakes… aka “fire starter”.

Then, it was time to start demolition. We started by removing the tin roof. It was in pretty bad shape, but we think some of the tin will work on our horse stable.

We were able to remove all the side boards from the loafing shed before letting the rest of that structure collapse. It was held by only a couple of nails, so we had to be pretty careful, as the neighbor’s chain-link fence was only about a foot away. Using ropes to pull, Cindy, Bev and I applied pressure away from the fence as Clyde pried the loafing shed from the barn. Within just a minute, we had the rest of the roof (cedar shakes and roof boards) on the ground.

Later in the week, Clyde started on the roof, removing several layers of asphalt shingles. Bev and Cindy got there in time to remove their share, and pile all of it up. Another neighbor will be filling in the hole later, so we’re stacking the shingles to be dumped into the hole.

This past weekend, we got weathered out, experiencing about 1 inch (10% of our total rainfall) in just 24 hours. Fortunately, we’ve brought home the drawers (loaded with all the cedar shakes) and the usable side boards and doors.

Oh, while we were at the dump, we saw a fellow dumping half sheets of OBS plywood. After a quick chat, they were diverted onto our truck, and we were off to his place to round up more plywood. In all, we salvaged about $150 worth of plywood that’s good enough to use on the addition to the chicken coop and shelves in the basement.

But wait… we’re not done yet!

Clyde and Amber put a bug in our ear about FREE POTATOES. Yeah… it’s a “gleaning operation”. The big potato farmer has mechanically harvested his potatoes and the field is now available to all the “locals” to hand pick the leftover potatoes. Bev and Cindy stopped by today and gathered up about 30 pounds. Friday we’re all going back for more as the farmer still has two more fields to harvest. Sure helps on the grocery bill!

Here’s the deal on my “Advertiser Loyalty Program”.

Every time you purchase a 24-hr ad spot from me, I enter you into a pool of that month’s advertiser. That means, at least, you have a 1 in 31 chance of winning at least 60 EC from me. I have five blogs, so you are welcome to advertise across all five and compete for each of the pools.

I also keep track of how many times you advertise with me. See that “Most Loyal Advertisers” in my Blogroll? Each of those bloggers have advertised at least 10 times with me. They may have advertised two times on each blog, or 10 times in just one blog. Either way, they all earned a permanent link for their efforts.

I also have a “big pool” made up of all the advertisers. I set aside 25% of the credits I receive from advertising, and when that totals 500, I go to a random number generator and select a winner, awarding them all 500 EC.

Who’s been winning? That’s where the link love comes in… Be sure to check out these folks. They each received at least 60 EC from this blog.

May Winner: Tail Pix

June Winner: Time!

July Winner: BlogDumps

August Winner: AJN

If you’d like to get in on the action, join me at Entrecard. It’s where bloggers really have come together to create a program that works.

She asked if we would feed the goats, sheep, chickens, cats and dogs. Of course, we’d be happy to… and that meant learning how to milk the last two nanny goats. So, a week ago last Friday night we went to learn how to milk goats.

I’d milked a few cows as a kid, but I was much skinnier then, and the “old bones” weren’t as stiff either. Cindy got the hang of it right away, even she was only milking “one handed”. She preferred to hold onto the bucket with the other hand. As for Bev, well the flies were a problem so she declined on the milking task.

Here’s the really good news. All the milk went back to the animals. The cats and dog got several saucer-fulls. There were three orphan kids to feed, and they weren’t real shy about letting you know they were ready. Then the chickens got whatever was left.

In my opinion, the sanitation could have been better, but that would have added to the job. Because the animals got the milk, there was no washing or even rinsing of the buckets (plastic pails), bottles, or pans. This system works for this neighbor, as she has rarely ever had a sick animal as a result of lack of sanitation.

Feeding the goats was a challenge as the kids could get through the cattle panels with no problems. So here we are, pawing around a haystack, determining which flakes have no mold (a common problem with hay that’s a year old), and trying to throw it to the right place, while we have three or four kid goats “helping”. They were in our faces, on our backs and in general just really pesky.

The first night, I tackled the milking. Both goats know the routine by heart… Sure wish I did!. I got the first gal out and she climbed onto the primitive stanchion kinda’ sorta’ looking at me as if to say…”Hey stupid! Where’s my grain?”

I was getting it… just not fast enough. I barely got her collar hooked to keep her in place!

On to the task of milking. You probably imagine me (all 250 lbs of me) sitting on a little stool, just doing my thing. Well, instead of stool, it was a cinder block, not quite as high as a stool. Folding my legs under caused them to “go to sleep”… not good when you have to stand up. Finally, I stretched one leg to behind the goat, risking she’d back off the stanchion and and step on me. The other leg really had no where to go, but into kind of a “half crossed leg” position.

The wind was blowing about 20 mph, and the flies were still atrocious. Oh, and it was about 80 degrees!

I got enough milk to hand the bucket off to Cindy to get the first bottle filled. Oops, the wind blew the bottle over just as she was pouring… Someone’s gonna have a short dinner. We repeated this process a couple of times, getting just enough milk to feed two of the kids and the dog.

Second goat… named “Schizophrenic”… get the picture? Flies kinda freak her out, so I had still more spilled milk. Oh yes, and I wore plenty of it, too. Even the kids Cindy was feeding were wearing their milk as they pulled the nipple right off the bottle!

And this was just the first night… It was gonna be a long week.

Cindy’s experience wasn’t much better at first. But we all agreed, it was more sensible for her to milk, and for me to feed. Bev joined us after the first night and we split the chores. I’d head for the chickens to feed, water and collect the eggs, returning the eggs to the truck so we could take those to the house. Bev would head for the hay stack to feed the various goats and sheep. Cindy would immediately begin milking.

We’d trade off the watering depending upon who had how much to do when it came to getting hay distributed, etc. I pretty much handled feeding the three kid goats. Two of them always came to the fence for their bottles and a third one had to be “coaxed” from the hay. I hardly ever had to really try to catch her… she learned right away that I was “good news”.

By the end of the week, three of us could do what the neighbor does… ‘cept it took us three times as long.

Last night she was so full of piss and vinegar, she couldn’t even stay on her feet. I was topping off the water bucket as I watched her running and bucking in the pen. Mama was watching from a distance as if to say… you play, I’m too tired and would rather just chew my cud.

She made a dash into the shelter area, around that and back out, quickly cutting to the left only to slip and skid, all four feet flying out from under her. When she got up to look around, she had a really silly look on her face, as if to say… Yeah, I’m too fast for anyone… you stupid sheep aren’t supposed to trip me like that!

I’ve been working to get my hands on her more reliably, but haven’t really gotten her full attention. I can rub Sweetie Pie’s forehead and nose, being very careful to stay clear of her horns. Darn those flies! She goes to chase them off her withers, and if my hands are in the way… oh well… that’s gonna leave a mark!

It’s that time when we take a minute (or an hour) to just sit and watch the sheep, the cow, the chickens we’re now letting truly free-range, and all the other wildlife.

Our little garden patches yielded goodies this year for the first time in three years. We’ve been enjoying ripe tomatoes, fresh potatoes, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, onions and garlic. Our corn may not make it in time, and the eggplant is questionable.

Once again, we planted winter squash (spaghetti, acorn and butternut) in hopes we’ll get not only enough for ourselves, but also enough to take to market.

Ever the optimist, Cindy planted watermelon, the small seedless variety in hopes of getting at least one ripe melon. We’ve been covering them, as well as the squash, every night since our first frost Sept 1.

Over Labor Day weekend, we rented a tractor (they call them skip loaders in this area) with a bucket and a grading box so we could rearrange some of our sand and clean out part of the sheep pen. We had to go to St George to pick it up on Friday afternoon, but were able to keep it until the following Tuesday morning. For the weekend, we could use it 8 hours. Additional hours cost extra… no problem!

What follows is a snapshot of what was and now, what is.

We smoothed off a lot of “dunes and tumbleweeds” around the horse corral as well as made “homes” for each stack of hay (72 bale stacks… that’s a little over 4 tons per stack).

Before…

After…

Sheep and goats auctioned earlier would run around the ring. Some posed, as if to say… “I’m worth more money!” Others acted frightened, wanting only to escape through the rails, or out the wrong door. Most, however, seem to know “you go in this door, and out that door”, only pausing for about 30 seconds in the ring.

Our sheep refused to come into the ring voluntarily. They had to be pushed and prodded. Once there, the three of them huddled together for security as if to say… “If I hide my head, maybe all this stuff will quit happening.”

Picture this…

All the other sheep have been the classic Polypay or Suffolk breed raised around here. They’re all pastured and self-confident. Sure, there were a few “old gals” who looked pretty scruffy. There was also a small flock of lambs that looked as though they were closer to yearlings than lambs.

On the other hand, our “little” guys had been raised in a pen, with lots of personal attention. They weren’t bottle babies, but we spend a lot of time taming our animals to make them somewhat easier to catch and handle.

They were all black, and still had their gonads, two things that are considered major mark-downs at auction. Considering the prices for the other sheep were going in the neighborhood of 78 to 83 dollars per hundred weight, and knowing the mark-down (as much as $25/cwt), we figured if we got $50-60 per animal, we’d be doing well.

The first comments I heard from the old men behind us were… “4-H sheep!”…”I didn’t know anyone raised black on purpose!”. From a woman who manages a 1500 head sheep ranch… “You’re gonna lose $25 a head to price on them.”

And the bidding continued… 88, bid-a-bid-a-bid 89, 90, 91… 92, sold!

The buyer? The largest wholesaler at the auction, who had also purchased our ram (their daddy) a couple months earlier.

At $92/cwt, that was the highest price paid for any lambs since the day we took our ram to market. On that day, our neighbor got $99/cwt for his lamb crop.

With that, the ringmen shoved, pushed and otherwise pleaded with our boys to go through the “out” door. As for the old men… they were speechless.